Insomniac Games built Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 on a foundation it already knew worked, then handed players two Spider-Men instead of one. The 2023 action-adventure release from Insomniac and publisher Sony Interactive Entertainment lands on PC and PlayStation 5, and it is the third entry in the Marvel’s Spider-Man series, following Marvel’s Spider-Man (2018) and Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales (2020). The pitch is simple: Peter Parker and Miles Morales, one city, two very different ways to move through it.
Trailer, via PlayStation.
The swap between Peter Parker and Miles Morales
The core idea holds up. Players can switch freely between Peter and Miles during free-roam, and each has dedicated missions in the main story and in side content that lean on their individual traits. Peter serves as Miles’ mentor, and the game sets their personal lives against their duty to protect New York.
The cast is deep, drawn from Spider-Man comics and other media. Yuri Lowenthal returns as Peter; Nadji Jeter as Miles. Laura Bailey plays Mary Jane Watson, Griffin Puatu is Ganke Lee, Jacqueline Piñol is Rio Morales, and Ike Amadi is Aaron Davis, once the Prowler. Graham Phillips plays Harry Osborn, whose illness drives much of the plot.
Kraven, Venom, and a bigger New York
The plot pits both Spider-Men against Kraven the Hunter, who turns New York City into a hunting ground for super-powered individuals, and against the extraterrestrial Venom symbiote, which bonds to Peter and pulls him down. The symbiote suit gives Peter tendrils for combat and unique web-based abilities.
The open world grows past Manhattan, the main setting of the previous two games, to include Brooklyn and Queens. New Web Wings let both Spider-Men glide across the city, with speed and distance rising when they catch wind tunnels. Combat adds parries, since some enemy types cannot be dodged.
The gadget wheel gets real attention:
- Web-shooters gain equippable mods, including a Web Line cast across pillars for stealth footing
- The Web Grabber pulls multiple enemies into one spot for Stealth Takedowns
- Takedowns can now hit two enemies at once
Mary Jane and Venom are playable in certain missions. It remains a single-player game, played from a third-person perspective.
What the free swap gets right
The free swap is the smartest thing Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 does. It is not a costume change. Insomniac gives each Spider-Man missions built around what separates them, which turns a mechanical convenience into the spine of the whole game.
The symbiote is the bigger swing, and the riskier one. Handing Peter tendrils and a darker arc only works if the story earns the turn, and the game leans hard on Harry Osborn’s recovery and his friendship with Peter to carry it. That is the thread to watch, not the suit itself.
The expanded map is the quieter win. Brooklyn and Queens give the Web Wings somewhere to matter, and the wind tunnels turn traversal into something closer to a skill than a commute.
Where Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 lands
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 does not reinvent the series. It widens it. Two playable Spider-Men, a larger New York, and a Venom story that puts Peter’s relationships on the line add up to a sequel that understands its own strengths and spends its budget there. The parry system and the gadget mods are refinements, not revelations, and the game knows it.
What it gets right is scale with purpose. The city is bigger because the Web Wings need room. The second Spider-Man exists because Miles earned it. That is a sequel built with intent.
Get the Notebook.
The day's best stories and every fresh verdict, in plain English, in your inbox by seven. One email a day, no more.
